Ye archiwyves, stondeth at defense, Syn ye be strong as is a greet camaille.
-from The Clerk’s Tale
How canst thou say, I am not polluted…thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways.
-Jeremiah 2:23
Chaucer likened a strong wife to a “greet camaille”, but which? A he-camel, what KhairAllah would call a jamal ‘adtheem? Or a she, what the boy drover Ibrahim would call a naaqa mithaara, a moist female as in the Prophet Jeremiah’s fervid mind, not one “stondeth at defense” but rather “in heat, running around loose, rushing into the desert” (in the words of the Good News translation) and “traversing her ways” (in King James’ more chaste phrase)?
Our dabouka had no shes, as per the Sudanese livestock export law, so we saw no traversing of ways. Chaucer would have been bored, no bawdy nun, no mooning wench, no two-timing younger wives of old men. But the drovers weren’t bored, they were too tired to chase after camels running in the opposite direction of Cairo. They were all eager to arrive, for the nightlife quarter KitKat and by that they didn’t mean the chocolate bar.